


Forged In Fire

by Lythane



Series: Sink Your Teeth In [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy XV: Kingsglaive
Genre: Alpha Libertus, Alpha Nyx, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/M, M/M, Pack Dynamics, Puberty is hard for everyone, Struggles with Sexuality, Tags will be added, canon compliant deaths, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-04 21:00:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17905541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lythane/pseuds/Lythane
Summary: It's not easy growing up in a war zone.Snippets from Nyx and Libertus' life in Galahd, growing up and moving to Insomnia to join the Glaive.Part of the 'Sink Your Teeth In' Series, but can be read as a stand-alone.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyx makes a friend for life.

It’s a typical summer’s day in Galahd, when the air is warm and humid and dew sparkles on the grass in the pale morning light.

Nyx is six years old and not yet concerned with anything beyond the small, remote village where he lives.  The war hasn’t reached this far into the islands yet, only the slowly increasing number of demons at night causing a stir in the otherwise peaceful life of a child.

He is sitting outside in the mud with his baby sister, showing her with great determination how to make the _best_ mud pies, with soft mud from the rain and grass and flowers for decoration.

He’s stacking the pies in a tower formation, carefully and precisely, when a movement draws his attention to the bottom of the garden.  He looks over, tensing at the possibility of demons ( _but demons only come out at night_ , he reminds himself) and instead sees a boy peering at them over the fence.  A boy he hasn’t seen before.

Nyx waves curiously, and the boy disappears, dropping down behind the old wooden planks to hide from sight.

Nyx frowns, handing the half-finished pie in his hand to Selena. 

“Shout if you see something weird,” he says, nodding sincerely at her gurgled, nonsensical response.

He gets up, wiping the mud from his hands onto his shorts and wanders down to the trees lining the end of their garden, mud squelching between his toes on the sodden grass. 

Stopping by a tree, he listens carefully, staring at the fence just a few feet away where he saw the face appear, until he hears a quiet sniff and a shuffle of feet.  Slowly, the boy’s face peeks over the top of the fence again, blue eyes widening when he sees Nyx standing there, now brandishing a stick with the confidence of a battle-forged warrior.  

There’s a scuffle of feet and the boy’s face disappears again as he stumbles back down with an ‘oof’. 

Nyx hops to the fence and climbs onto the first slat, tossing his stick to the floor to peer over and grin at the boy now splayed on his back in the mud.

“What are you doing?” Nyx asks with a laugh.  The boy stares up at him for a moment.

“I heard you playing and I just...” The boy stands up sheepishly and shrugs, pulling a twig from his hair, “I’m bored.”

“You wanna come play with us?” Nyx asks, leaning over further until the fence creaks. “Me and Selena are making mud pies,” he frowns, “She’s not very good at it though, but she’s a baby.”

“Yes!”  The boy grins, bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly, “Yeah ok.”

“Can you climb over?” Nyx asks, climbing up onto the second plank of the old wooden fence. “Like this?”

The boy nods with a determined pout and with some help from Nyx, hauls himself over into Nyx’s garden.  They fall onto the floor together and get to their feet laughing. 

“I’m Nyx, and I’m six,” Nyx says, sing-songing over the rhyme and holding out his muddy hand with a lopsided grin. 

“I’m Libertus, I’m six _and a_ _half_ ,” says the boy, shaking Nyx’s hand with exaggerated swings. “Nice to meet you, my pack lives over that way, that’s our farm,” he says, pointing vaguely behind him, “We just moved down from the mountains.”

“My pack lives here,” Nyx says, with a nod, pointing at the large converted barn house behind him. “Most of them are out though, I heard some demons broke the roof of the town hall last night and they’re fixing it, I’m looking after my sister for when they get back.”

Libertus nods, chewing his lip thoughtfully, brow creasing with a flicker of anxiety.

“Anyway, c’mon,” Nyx says cheerfully, grabbing Libertus’ hand in his own and tugging him towards the house.

They run back to Selena, who has demolished Nyx’s pile of perfect pies and covered herself in a layer of mud.  Nyx sighs sadly and pulls some grass from her hair.

“Libertus this is Selena, she’s my sister. She’s _not_ good at mud pies.”

Libertus waves at her and she claps her hands at him excitedly, spraying them both with mud. 

“I don’t have any brothers or sisters,” he says sadly, flopping down to sit next to Selena.

Nyx joins him, doling out more mud from the pile of ex-pies, “Is your pack very small then?” he asks, dropping a clump of mud into Libertus’ waiting hand.  “Mine’s huge but lots of them left to fight when The Wall moved.  But that was before I was born so I don’t know them, I’ve just seen photos,” he shrugs.

Libertus gets comfy on the grass and starts rounding off a mud pie, enjoying the feeling of the soft silt on his hands. “My pack is big but it’s all grown-ups except me.  Lots of them left a year ago though, with all my friends.  My mum said they’d come back but they haven’t.” 

He huffs sadly, pushing a hole into his mud pie to add some petals.

“Oh.” Nyx decorates his pie with a few strands of grass, and puts it down next to Libertus’.  He turns to look at him with a smile.  “Well, you can be my friend if you want.”

“Yeah?” Libertus asks brightly.

“Sure,” Nyx nods, admiring Libertus’ mud pie. “I don’t have many not-family friends.”

Libertus smiles shyly and looks to Selena thoughtfully as she picks an earthworm from the wet grass and, to Nyx’s dismay, shoves it straight into her mouth.

“Selena!” Nyx yelps, gently removing the wiggling worm from her vice-like grip and throwing it back to the grass out of reach, “No worms!”

Libertus laughs, “You know,” he says, splatting his hands together over a new clump of mud, “my dad says that if you go out to the mountains where the river starts is in a storm there’s lightning worms in the ground that jump out and _eat_ you.” 

Nyx laughs, “that’s dumb, I’ve never seen a worm big enough to eat a person. Maybe a demon worm.”

“Well it’s _true_.  Have _you_ been to the river in a storm?” Libertus scoffs, adding his finished pie to the pile for Selena to destroy.

“Well... No,” Nyx admits, prying Libertus’ pie from Selena’s hand as she giggles and tries to shove that in her mouth instead, “My pack won’t let us go outside in a storm in case the thunder steals us away.”

“ _That’s_ dumb, how’s thunder gunna steal you?” Libertus laughs. Nyx scowls and hits him on the arm playfully with a wet slap.

“You’re dumb!” Nyx laughs, then, “We should go,” he says determinedly.

“Go...?” Libertus asks warily.

“Next time there’s a storm.  And find some lightning worms.  If we find some _then_ I’ll believe you.”

“Uh, we shouldn’t go out by ourselves,” Libertus grimaces, “What about the demons?”

“Yeah but we can go in the day time so it’s safe right? Demons don’t come out in the day.” Nyx sits back on his hands and fixes Libertus with a smirk, “You’re not _scared_ are you?”

“No! I just… I don’t know the way,” Libertus says, unconvincingly.

“That’s fine,” Nyx retorts, eyes bright with mischief, “I do!”

 

***

 

The next storm arrives a week later, the first promise of thunder rumbling across the sky in the early afternoon. Nyx and Libertus sneak out of their houses to meet in the forest behind Nyx’s garden as planned, armed with some pointy sticks (to scare away monsters), some snacks and enough excitable energy between them to power all of Eos.

They set off into the forest towards the mountains looming in the distance, determined and bubbling with anticipation. Thunder echoes above them as the rain gets heavier, pouring through the trees and drenching them both in a matter of seconds as they run and jump through the puddles.

Barely fifteen minutes into their adventure however, Nyx realises… he doesn’t know the way.  The mountains aren’t getting any closer, and through the dark clouds he can’t even see the tops of them anymore.

The rain continues to hammer through the treetops, soaking them to the bone as forks of lightning clash above, dropping leaves and splitting tree branches down to the forest floor. 

“Um,” Nyx mumbles, lip trembling as he spins on the spot, looking for anything familiar.  Every direction suddenly looks the same, the pathways flooded and merging into one seamless bog-like expanse sloshing around their feet.

Libertus stands next to him, hugging himself and shivering, eyes wide and darting to any glimpse of movement.  Nyx sniffs, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand as panic jitters through him.

“I…” he whines, glancing at Libertus’ through tear soaked lashes. 

A bolt of lightning shatters a tree ahead of them, splitting the trunk down the center and sending both boys screaming and running in the opposite direction.  Libertus grabs Nyx’s hand and yanks him to the side suddenly, skidding down into an old tree trunk that’s hollowed at the base.

They squeeze in together, huddled and shaking - partly from the cold and party from adrenaline - as the downpour continues outside their little haven, endless and hopeless.

“Sorry,” Nyx whispers between sniffs.

“It’l be fine,” Libertus replies, nodding with a false confidence as a surge of protectiveness washes through him, “Our packs will come and find us.”

“We shouldn’t have snuck out,” Nyx mumbles, “My mum’s gunna kill me if she finds out.”

Libertus wiggles his arm between them to grab Nyx’s hand in his own again.  Nyx sniffles and rests his chin on his knees, hugging them to his chest with his other hand.  He looks sideways at Libertus.

“Will your pack be angry?”

“Probably,” Libertus says forlornly, “If they find out.”

“Maybe if we get back we can keep it a secret then,” Nyx says softly.

Libertus nods, watching the slow rhythmic drip of water off the end of a branch.

The storm eases mercifully quickly. Warm sunlight beams through the treetops like a blessing from the gods, crystal drops of water drip softly from the canopy above them and the forest fills with a light mist as the water begins to evaporate.

Nyx eases out of their shelter first, glancing around tepidly.  Libertus follows, grabbing his bag and squinting off into the distance.

“Isn’t that your house?” he asks, pointing a short distance away to a wooden fence peeking between trees, lit perfectly in a golden ray of sunshine.

“Yeah,” Nyx snorts, wringing out the front of his t-shirt and flapping the material to unstick it from his skin.  Libertus bursts out laughing, doubling over at how silly the whole thing seems now.

Nyx look back towards the woods thoughtfully, before smiling sheepishly, “We should probably go home.”

“Yeah,” Libertus grins, pushing Nyx towards the fence.

“This was a pretty lame adventure, huh?” Nyx laughs, tripping over debris as he picks his way across the flooded forest floor.

“It was alright, we still snuck out and almost got hit by lightning,” Libertus considers, stopping when they reach the fence and watching Nyx hoist himself up and sit on the top, “I’ve never snuck out before.”

“Me either. It was pretty scary.”  Nyx chews his lip thoughtfully, “When we’re grown up enough, we should go on proper adventures together,” he says, teeth chattering between every word. 

“Yeah!” Libertus nods, hitching his bag onto his shoulder, “We can make our own pack and go like, to the mainland and everything.”

Nyx grins, pointing at his cheek, “We can get pack marks together! And be friends forever.”

“ _Best_ friends.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm very excited to post this fic, it's been in the works for a long time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyx is nine when his mother pulls him from his bed in the middle of the night as the foreign sound of automatic gunfire blazes outside.

Nyx is nine when his mother pulls him from his bed in the middle of the night as the foreign sound of automatic gunfire blazes outside. 

Flashing lights blare on the horizon, impossibly bright against the night sky before he’s ushered into the cellar under their house with nothing but a flickering oil lamp held tentatively in his hands.

The hatch slams shut above him, stunning him in the silence.

A minute passes before Nyx has the energy to walk down the stairs and onto the cold concrete floor, suddenly and overwhelming aware of the endless black around him beyond his halo of light. 

A moment later the hatch opens again and Selena stumbles down to join him, clutching her blanket in a sleepy haze. His mother hovers in the space, light spilling over her silhouette into the small room as she takes a shaky breath.

“Stay quiet, keep Selena safe,” she says, “Don’t come out unless someone comes to get you, understand?”

Nyx nods, with words stuck in his throat that plead, _don’t leave me_.

“I’ll be back for you,” she promises, “Always.”

The cellar door drops shut again and the light outside is extinguished. 

Nyx takes a deep breath and walks to the corner of the room with Selena in hand.  There’s a pile of cushions and blankets set up for this purpose. He slumps down in the middle and Selena falls asleep in his lap a moment later, too tired to comprehend the chaos that’s about to ensue.

Nyx waits in silence, as he has done many times before. 

The flickering flame of the oil lamp isn’t much of a reassurance, barely lighting the floor around them, each small draft of wind threatening to blow it out.

Selena sniffles quietly, peaceful in her sleep and Nyx grips her hand gently, more for his own comfort than hers, playing the sound of gunfire over and over in his mind. 

Demons don’t use guns, they don’t shoot back. 

He doesn’t know what it means.  

Nyx worries his lip as every minute drags on for what feels like hours.  The adults will come to get them, they always do. When it’s safe.

He just has to wait.

The cold night air begins to seep into his skin, his thin pyjamas doing nothing to keep him warm. 

Doors slam above him suddenly, followed by the frantic thud of boots echoing through the house, things clattering across the wood floor, and muffled shouts. Nyx strains to hear the pitches he recognises as his parents, his family, his pack.

He stares ahead at the space where he knows the hatch is and hopes that it’s over already, that they can come out and everything will be fine. 

Barely a moment later, the footsteps rush out the house and once again, Nyx is left in silence. 

Nyx blinks into the darkness beyond his little sanctuary of light, shifting to peer blindly at the occasional creak or groan of wood, willing himself to stay calm as the first jitters of panic set in.

 _It’ll be fine, it always is_ , he tells himself. 

He watches the small flame flicker valiantly in its glass dome and wonders if setting it higher might light more of the room.  If not, at least it will give him something to do.  Selena stirs slightly as he wiggles out from under her and carefully wraps her in the blanket, picking up the handle of the lamp and staring into the darkness thoughtfully.

He knows the layout of the room by memory, and with the small guiding light, he wanders to the nearest shelf - currently occupied by various gardening tools - and carefully makes a small space for his lamp.

He isn’t tall enough, and spills the oil across the floor as his hand trembles to push it onto the highest shelf.  The small flame flickers out, the scent of smoke filling his nose. 

Nyx whimpers.

He sets the lamp down on the floor carefully, returning to the blankets and curling up on the floor next to Selena, wrapping his arms around her.  The silence stretches on, punctured only by the occasional distant screech of a demon or rattling gunfire.

Nyx focuses on a space ahead of him until he’s convinced the darkness is moving, wrapping around him and suffocating him.  The shadows twist and reach for him as he presses himself against the wall to avoid them, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. He buries his head in his hands and grits his teeth, waiting for the monster to consume him.

Nyx jerks awake at the sound of footsteps above them, running across the ceiling and dislodging dust down into the cellar.  The noise wakes Selena too and she quickly plasters herself to his side with a quiet whimper.

He must have fallen asleep, he thinks, as he wipes the dried tears from his eyes and shifts to sit up again.

He watches the hatch with wide eyes, catching glimpses of light and movement through cracks in the floorboards above as people rush into the house.  There’s shouting and panic, he can taste blood in the air, and something acrid and ashy that he doesn’t recognise as death.

More footsteps run past, stopping over the hatch.

Nyx holds his breath.

The hatch is thrown open and his mother runs down, muddy and dishevelled, with her axe hanging over her shoulder, dripping red with blood and black with… something else.

“Nyx, up up,” she says hurriedly, ushering him to his feet and picking Selena up in her arms.  Nyx staggers to his feet, reaching for her and grabbing on to her coat.  Other people rush down into the cellar a moment later, pulling supplies from boxes and moving around them in a chaos that has him stumbling and looking around in fear as his mother leads him away.

“What’s happening?” he stammers, tripping over his own feet as he climbs the rickety old stairs. 

“I’m fine,” she says, calmly, “We’re going upstairs so the others can use the cellar.”

Nyx nods, fear burning in his chest like bile.

He’s hit by the smell of burning flesh before he sees them - the people laid out across the living room floor, writhing and crying in pain.  He’s not quick enough to see their faces but they smell familiar, they smell like friends and family.

His mother pushes him past them and up to the second floor, soothing him with a rush of her scent.  He tries not to look, but there’s so much blood, seeping down into the wooden floors, splattered across weapons, dripping and running and flooding and he can’t tear his eyes away. 

He doesn’t realise he’s upstairs until he’s sitting on his bed, hands trembling in his lap as his mother shuts the door and dumps her axe to the floor with a thud.

“Nyx,” she says, kneeling down in front of him and taking his cold hands in hers. He stares at her hands, smeared with dirt and blood and black stuff and-.  “ _Nyx_.”

He looks at her.

“Stay up here. It’s safe now,” she says, soothing, soft and safe.  He nods, because he knows even if he had any words he wouldn’t be able to speak them. 

A cloud of dust particles floating in a beam of sunlight catch his attention, slowly drifting through the air.

“It’s light?” he asks, quietly.

“Yes sweetheart, it’s morning, there’s no more demons.”  She squeezes his hands and urges him under the covers, tucking the blankets around him.

He settles, with a cold in his bones that won’t seem to go away, and asks quietly, “Where’s Selena?”

“I’ve taken her to my room. She’s fine too.”

Nyx doesn’t remember her leaving, but… he also doesn’t remember coming upstairs.  He lies back and stares up at the ceiling, whining softly when his mother leans over and presses a kiss to his forehead.

“Libertus is coming over,” she says, “He’s going to share your room ok?”

“Ok. Where’s his pack?” His mothers pauses, grief plain in her eyes as she thinks through her words.

“They’re gone,” she says quietly, “But, Libertus is ok, and he’s going to stay with us now, alright? Can you look after him for me?”

Nyx nods, the words tumbling through his mind.  _They’re gone, they’re gone, gone._

“Ok.  He’ll be up soon.” She gives him one last kiss then leaves briskly, with a forced smile, to re-join the chaos downstairs.

Nyx rolls onto his side and curls into a ball, pulling the blankets around him tighter as he tries not to listen to the noises below. People got hurt, people he knows. 

The door creaks open.

“H-hey.”

Nyx rolls over to face the door and his eyes widen.  Libertus edges into the room and quietly closes the door behind him.  He’s clutching a small bag and dressed in what Nyx recognises as his father’s sweatpants and t-shirt.

“Libs!” Nyx leaps out of bed and circles his best friend, all his own worries temporarily pushed to the back of his mind, “Are you ok? Are you hurt? Do you want some water? Why are you wearing my dad’s clothes?”

Libertus shrinks away from him slightly but smiles, “I’m ok, I’m not hurt.  My clothes were muddy so your mum gave me these.”

“Oh,” Nyx says, taking the small bag from Libertus’ hand and placing it down by the bed. He sits down and looks at Libertus, at the ash and dirt on his skin.  “Are… you ok?” he asks, quietly.

Libertus opens his mouth to reply, but before Nyx has the chance to react, there’s tears spilling down his cheeks.  He shakes his head quickly and goes to sit next to Nyx on the bed, hands balled into tight fists.

“What happened?” Nyx asks tentatively, leaning round to try and look at Libertus’ face.  Libertus simply sniffles in response and rubs his eyes with the heel of his palm.

“I don-don’t wanna talk about it,” he whispers, like the words themselves were frozen on his tongue. 

“Ok,” Nyx says, exhausted.  After a moment of shuffling blankets around, they crawl into bed side by side. 

Nyx stares at the billowing smoke outside, willing for sleep to come as anxiety and the lack of adrenaline settle cold in his bones. 

 

***

 

Downstairs, Nyx’s mother, Lyra, tends to the wounded on the bloodied wooden floor of her living room.  She uses every ounce of magic the gods have gifted her to save as many as she can, though the lives already lost total more than she could have imagined, and certainly more than they can afford. 

The cries of the grieving echo in her chest as she stands, surveying the dead.

She makes a silent prayer to Ramuh to keep her children safe, to keep her village safe, unaware of the blessing of lightning that sets in her bones as she does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!
> 
> I couldn't find anything on a canon name for Nyx's mum so anyway she's mine now and her name is Lyra and she's a badass.
> 
> Thanks to DreadBehemoth for beta reading


End file.
